By The Hillsdale Conservatives
HILLSDALE, Mich. —
The Hillsdale County Fair Board has reversed course and is now accepting memberships from residents it previously refused — and the public response has been swift.
Since the reversal, a possibly historic 143 new members have joined the Hillsdale County Agricultural Society, according to residents tracking sign-ups. On the first full day after the change, nearly 40 memberships were processed without incident. Staff were polite, no deputies were called, and no one was accused of “code of conduct” violations.
The next major test comes Monday, December 15, at 6:00 p.m., when the Society’s annual membership meeting is scheduled to be held in the 4-H Dining Hall at the fairgrounds. That’s the night members elect the Fair Board — and potentially decide whether to keep or remove current leadership.
Anyone who wants to vote at that meeting has until November 15 to become a member by paying the standard $10 fee. After that deadline, residents can still join, but they likely won’t be eligible to vote this year under the Society’s own 30-day rule.
A quiet reversal after weeks of conflict
The Fair Board’s change in posture came in an email from the Fair Manager to residents who had previously been turned away:
“We have consulted an attorney, and we are going to allow you to apply for membership with $10 and filling out the membership card.”
Office hours were listed. People who had been sent rejection letters were now being invited to “apply.”
To many, the timing spoke louder than the wording. The email followed:
- weeks of membership denials,
- a secret Fair Board meeting held inside the county jail,
- a written rejection citing “violations of our code of conduct,” and
- a message from the sheriff threatening members with trespassing for attempting to attend a meeting being held on public property.
Residents see the reversal not as a courtesy, but as confirmation: the Board had gone too far, and knew it.
Texts and emails: “Keep the board as is”
As the membership fight escalated, some 4-H leaders and past participants received texts and emails urging them to sign up to counter a particular group of residents.
One text, sent under the banner of the Fair Board, warned that a “group” was trying to “take over the board,” and asked recipients to join the Society and “keep the board as is” — framing reform-minded residents as a threat to the community.
Those on the receiving end say the message was clear:
If you question the Board, you’re the problem. If you defend it, you’re the “real community.”
Notice filed to remove the president
Behind the scenes, some of the newly energized members have gone beyond emails and complaints.
A dues-paying member has formally submitted notice of a motion to consider removing the Society’s president at the December 15 meeting. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, which the bylaws adopt for governing meetings, prior written notice allows an officer to be removed for cause by a simple majority vote (51%) of members present and voting.
The notice cites various by-laws:
- the duty of loyalty to the Society and its members,
- the requirement to act in good faith, and
- the prohibition on grossly negligent acts under the Society’s own bylaws.
If the motion is taken up, the decision will rest not with deputies, attorneys, or insiders — but with the members themselves, voting by secret ballot.
How this started: $10, a letter, and a locked gate
The confrontation over Fair membership did not begin with the reversal email. It began when residents walked into the Fair office with $10 and walked out with something very different.
Every person who tried to become a member received essentially the same letter from the Fair’s Executive Board:
“…due to violations of our code of conduct, we are unable to grant you membership…”
No specific incident was listed. No date, no description, no hearing. People who had done nothing more than attempt to pay the fee were told they had somehow violated a “code of conduct” they had never had a chance to accept or break.
Then came the night of the secret meeting.
Residents who thought they were going to a Fair Board meeting at the fairgrounds arrived to find:
- the meeting had been quietly moved to a room in the Sheriff’s Department / County Jail,
- deputies called to intimidate,
- community members turned away from what, for 175 years, had been a straightforward local institution.
Several attendees say deputies on scene acknowledged the building is public property, but said they were under orders to keep certain residents out.
What was once a $10 civic ritual had turned into a confrontation under fluorescent lights in a government hallway.
A “private” society created by public law
Fair officials have alternated between calling the Fair a “community event” and insisting it is “private property” that can exclude whoever the Board chooses.
On paper, the Hillsdale County Agricultural Society is indeed a private nonprofit corporation organized under Michigan’s Agricultural Society Act of 1855 (Act 80). The Michigan Attorney General has said that such societies are generally not “public bodies” for purposes of the state’s Freedom of Information Act or Open Meetings Act.
But “private” is not a magic word that cancels other laws.
Under MCL 453.233, any person 18 or older who pays the fee “shall be a stockholder or member … and entitled to all the privileges and immunities thereof.” The Society’s own posted rule says a person becomes a member by paying $10, and can vote if that payment is made at least 30 days before the meeting.
Residents who tendered payment — some with video, witnesses, and written notes — argue that the Board cannot legally erase that by refusing to take the money. Legal analysts point out that:
- A board cannot change membership rights without the notice and two-thirds vote its own Articles require.
- A nonprofit cannot deny voting rights to people who meet the conditions set in its governing documents.
- Courts in Michigan can step in when those in control of a nonprofit act in a way that is “unfair and oppressive” to members.
In plain terms:
The Board can keep non-members out of a private board session, but it cannot manufacture non-membership by refusing dues from people who meet every published and legal requirement.
Code of conduct, or cover story?
The Society’s Code of Conduct is written to address behavior at the fairgrounds: safety, harassment, property damage, and other conduct issues.
It does not say:
- that residents can be blacklisted in advance for their political views,
- that membership can be denied because of suspected affiliation, or
- that entire groups can be barred because they’ve criticized local officials.
Yet that is how the code was invoked in the rejection letters.
To critics, the “code of conduct” language reads less like a rules violation and more like a retroactive justification — a way to make lawful applicants look like rule-breakers without ever having to prove it. A know common tactic here in Hillsdale.
The law-enforcement piece
The most disturbing element for many residents is the role of law enforcement.
According to multiple accounts:
- Deputies were called to the fairgrounds when residents came to pay dues.
- A Fair Board meeting was held at the jail, not the fairgrounds, with law enforcement present, to keep members out.
- The Sheriff later threatened trespassing charges, despite the public nature of the building and the statutory rights at stake.
Civil-rights lawyers watching the situation say that if public officers use their authority to assist a private board in excluding members from a process protected by state law, it raises serious questions under federal civil-rights statutes. Whether any agency pursues that is a matter for investigators and prosecutors, but complaints and documentation have already been sent to state and federal authorities.
Outside authorities notified
In response to the denials, secret meeting, and threats, residents and members report that documentation has been forwarded to:
- The Michigan Attorney General’s Office
- The Michigan State Police Professional Standards Division
- The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
- Federal tax authorities, regarding the Society’s obligations as a charitable, public-facing organization
Those packets include:
- copies of the rejection letters,
- the follow-up email reversing course after “consulting an attorney,”
- accounts and screenshots of sheriff’s warnings,
- and references to the Society’s own published membership rules.
Whatever those agencies decide to do, the paper trail now extends far beyond the fairgrounds.
Some residents have also raised concerns about the long list of current and former public officials serving on or around the Fair Board who, in their view, have stayed silent as the controversy grew.
While some board members quietly flagged the unusual move to the jail, others have not publicly questioned the use of “code of conduct” letters, deputies at the door, threats from the Sheriff or shifting claims about the Fair’s status.
To critics, the silence of experienced insiders is almost as damaging as the conduct itself. A fair created to strengthen agriculture and community now finds itself at the center of a debate about power, access, and trust.
What happens on December 15
All of this now converges on one date:
Monday, December 15 – 6:00 p.m. – 4-H Dining Hall, Hillsdale County Fairgrounds
That’s when the Society’s annual members’ meeting is expected to be held — the meeting where members:
- receive reports,
- elect Board members, and
- in this case, may decide whether to keep or replace the current president.
Under the rules the Society itself has repeated for years, anyone who has paid their $10 membership at least 30 days in advance is eligible to vote. That makes November 15 the practical cutoff date.
Residents who previously tried and were denied say that, since the reversal email, the office has been issuing membership cards without confrontation. Those who were intimidated before are now walking back in, often with neighbors and family in tow.
A fair or just “fairness”?
For all the heated emails, tense meetings, and legal citations, the core question is simple:
Who does the Hillsdale County Fair belong to?
To a handful of people sitting around a table — or to the county that built it, funds it, shows at it, and lives around it?
For 175 years, the fairgrounds have been where 4-H kids learn responsibility, where farmers display what they grow, where open-class exhibitors share their work, and where neighbors see each other outside of screens and headlines.
If that tradition is to survive another 175 years, it will not be because a board tightened its grip. It will be because residents decided to show up, learn the rules, and use them.
Right now, that means:
- If you’re a Hillsdale County resident 18 or older,
- If you care about 4-H, open class, agriculture, or simple fairness,
- If you’re tired of being told the Fair is “for the community” but not your part of the community—
then you have a straightforward path:
- Go to the Fair Office.
- Pay $10.
- Get your membership card.
- Show up December 15 at 6 p.m. in the 4-H Dining Hall.
- Ask questions.
- Vote.
The Fair once billed itself as “The Most Popular Fair on Earth.”
If Hillsdale wants that slogan to be more than nostalgia, the Fair has to belong to everyone again — not just to those holding the gavel or the keys to the building.
————————–Last minute Addition————————–
Another Closed-Door Meeting — and Another Violation
Hours before this article went to press, the Fair Board treated Hillsdale County to yet another performance in its ongoing drama series, “How Not to Run a 175-Year-Old Institution.”
This time, the secret meeting wasn’t held at the Sheriff’s Department, with deputies as bouncers, so progress is being made.
No, tonight’s episode took place inside the Fair Office — doors locked, lights dimmed, and members politely (and illegally) left standing outside like they were waiting for a Black Friday sale that never opened.
New members — tipped off by several board members who say they are “tired of the shenanigans” (a direct quote, not creative writing) — arrived hoping to attend.
What they found instead was:
- A locked building,
- A dark office, and
- A late-arriving board member who delivered the line of the night:
“Members are not allowed into board meetings.”
A bold claim, especially since:
- The Society’s own Articles of Association say otherwise;
- Their posted membership rules say otherwise;
- Michigan’s Agricultural Society Act says otherwise;
- And the Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Act also says otherwise.
If there were an award for “Most Violated Governing Document in Hillsdale County,” the Fair Board’s bylaws may be a contender for Best of Show.
Members lawfully have the right to attend member meetings — yet here they stood, outside in the cold, watching leadership slip through a locked door like teenagers sneaking back into the house after curfew.
Yes, video exists. Sorry the public, can’t see it. Just kidding.
And the contrast on film is almost poetic:
- Residents behaving like responsible adults,
- A board member sliding through a locked door,
- And the law itself standing on the sidewalk with everyone else.
The Board frequently insists it wants “stability” and “professionalism.”
If so, they may want to stop holding meetings that look like back-alley poker games.
A Five-Minute “Meeting” and a Rapid Exit
Things somehow managed to get stranger.
Roughly five minutes after the chosen board member slipped inside, the entire group of attendees poured out of the building and scattered to their vehicles like someone had pulled a fire alarm.
No cooling-off chat, no “good night, folks,” no transparency whatsoever.
Just poof — meeting over.
Only two individuals lingered, each insisting they “didn’t know anything” and wouldn’t speak about what the meeting was about, but assured the new members that nothing out of the ordinary or odd was happening. An odd position to take immediately after leaving a secret meeting, they had just attended, that abruptly ended, and wouldn’t speak about to fellow members.
The scene was surreal:
- Members outside, legally entitled to attend
- A silent exodus from the shadows
- And a level of secrecy normally reserved for CIA briefings
If this had been submitted as a movie script, Hollywood executives would have said, “Tone it down — nobody would believe this.”
But this is Hillsdale County in 2025.
And believe it or not, the video exists. Here it is!
A Secret Meeting on the Same Day the Board Was Served Notice
And now for the plot twist.
This entire locked-door circus took place the very same day a newly recognized member formally served the Board with written notice that a motion will be introduced to remove the Board President for misconduct and multiple by-law violations.
Coincidence?
Must be, it’s not like anything odd or out of the ordinary is going on.
The ink wasn’t even dry on the notice before the Board scurried into a locked office, barred the members whose rights were at stake, and conducted undisclosed business under cover of darkness, shades drawn, doors locked.
When accountability approaches, the doors lock.
in liberty,
The Hillsdale Conservatives
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